Gasoline prices will continue to fall. The trucking industry, which accounts for 1/3 of all US oil consumption, can be converted to run on natural gas, and Obama has signed legislation to support this. Natural gas can also be converted into oil very profitably at the current price ratio with GTL technology, and Shell and SASOL competing to build these facilities in the US. Additionally, the price of solar panels has dropped by 75% in the last three years. Solar is now competitive with daytime electricity rates, and it will continue to get cheaper. But putting solar panels on roofs is just the tip of the iceberg. By mid-century, most of our power will come from space. Space-based solar panels are much more efficient as the sunlight is 5.5 times stronger in space, and the panels always operate at 100% with no night. The power will get beamed to earth in the form of microwaves. Private enterprise will lower the cost of space launch enough to undercut other methods of power generation. Much to the environmentalist's delight, oil is on its way out.
I recently read "Private Empire" (
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Private-Empire-ExxonMobil-American-Power/dp/1846146593/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341579850&sr=8-1 ), which despite the name turned out to be a rather level-headed read. Among other interesting tidbits, it outlines Exxon's recent studies into the future of energy, namely, whether they should be looking at alternative energy sources seriously or not. Their conclusion was that everything that could threaten the status quo of fossil fuels as the main source of energy (overwhelmingly by the way, check out some stats for global energy production...) requires several near-miraculous discoveries in the near term.
Now, Exxon isn't exactly unbiased, but still, solar is so small now that even assuming yearly growth rates in the double digits, the industry will be hard pressed to gain more than a few percent of total global energy production within the next few decades, as energy consumption is projected to grow as well...
As for gas prices currently, the news outlets here say it's simply because of the global economic fubar. Consumption is down.
OK perhaps deflation of that money supply which is drawn on by to the primary purchasers of gasoline, but even that I find difficult to believe. 
